Waco Turner Open Explained

Waco Turner Open
Location:Burneyville, Oklahoma
Establishment:1961
Course:Turner's Lodge
Par:72
Tour:PGA Tour
Format:Stroke play
Month Played:April/May
Final Year:1964
Aggregate:276 Johnny Pott (1962)
To-Par:−16 as above
Final Champion: Pete Brown
Map:USA#USA Oklahoma
Map Relief:yes
Map Label:Turner's Lodge
Coordinates:33.927°N -97.309°W

The Waco Turner Open was a PGA Tour event that was played in Burneyville, Oklahoma in the early 1960s.

The founder of the tournament, Waco Turner, was a millionaire Oklahoma oilman with a passion for golf. He started Turner's Lodge, a golf resort on what he hoped would flourish into a 2700acres grand development of 3,000 homes with a hotel, restaurants, tennis courts, swimming pools and an airstrip built around three lakes. The project ran into financial difficulties and the PGA left after the 1964 event.[1]

The greatest claim to fame for the tournament is that in 1964 an African American golfer, Pete Brown, won an official PGA Tour event for the first time at this event.[1] [2] [3]

The development, now called Falconhead Resort, has changed hands repeatedly in the ensuing decades, and only about 400 homes have been built on the 3,000 home sites.[1]

Winners

YearWinnerScoreTo parMargin of
victory
Runner-up
280 −8 1 stroke Dan Sikes
280 −12 1 stroke Ted Ball
276 −16 6 strokes Mason Rudolph
281 −7 1 stroke Rex Baxter

Notes and References

  1. News: 500 OK-based Falconhead Resort lots go on auction block . The Oklahoma City Journal Record . April 12, 2006 . 2007-11-21 . Ted . Streuli.
  2. Web site: The Year in Golf, 1964 . 2007-11-21.
  3. Web site: Pete Brown the Facts! . 2007-11-21 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080517140715/http://www.afrogolf.com/PeteBrownFact%27s.html . 2008-05-17 .